Abstract

A Study on Parametric Optimization of Wire Electrical Discharge Machining Using Response Surface Methodology

Author(s): N. E. Arun Kumar, A. Suresh Babu and D. Murali

Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is extensively used in machining of exotic conductive materials when precision is of prime importance. Conventional machining in Beryllium copper alloy is difficult due to its hardness. WEDM is treated as a challenging one because improvement of more than one machining performance measures viz. material removal rate (MRR), surface finish (SF) are sought to obtain precision in work. An attempt to determine parameters setting is proposed. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) are adopted to determine the significant factors that could affect the machining performance such as material removal rate, surface finish etc. In this study, pulse ON time, pulse OFF time, pulse duration and servo feed are considered as control parameters. It has been observed that a combination of factors for optimization of each performance measure is different. In this paper, the relationship between control factors and responses like MRR and SF are established by means of regression analysis, resulting in a valid mathematical model. The study also demonstrates that the WEDM process parameters are optimized to achieve better material removal rate and surface finish simultaneously.